Re Morse

I've been influenced of late by reading the fiction of Colin Dexter, the inventor of Inspector Morse of the Thames Valley PD, Oxfordshire, England, UK. The Better Half and I have enjoyed the recent PBS run of "Masterpiece Mystery," which features "Inspector Lewis" (played by Kevin Whately), the protege of the late Inspector Morse (played by the late John Thaw). We liked the characters so well that I got Morse novels and have been reading them with much enjoyment.

Turns out Inspector Morse was a sodding pedant, always correcting the grammar, spelling, and content of statements of (then) Sergeant Lewis. Morse is an arrogant alcoholic (I can identify with that) and somewhat of a lecher (no comment, or should I say nolo contendere). Morse is a terrible snob and approves only of Wagner (that's VAHG-nehr, Vil-helm Rikh-ard, the German opera composer, the one Hitler loved, the anti-Semite) and not of Bach (the guy who signed all of his music "to the glory of God"). Morse weeps when he listens to Wagner. (I weep too but for different reasons. I keep telling myself I'm going to learn about opera, starting with Mozart, then the Italians, then maybe just a little of Wagner. (In Wag's bloated case, a "little" would be about one scene of one act of his shortest opera.) Just so I can say I know something about opera. Like reading Shakespeare plays before watching them.) Morse does like Mozart's Requiem too, and Mahler and Bruckner. Kudos to him for that. Morse is very fallably human with many foibles and when he stops being an arsehole at times can be likable. For some arcane reason, he is irresistible to women. Smacks of James Bond. These British writers get their jollies from the supermacho seductive chaps of their fiction.

I like the way the TV Lewis has picked up the Rugby ball and has scored a big goal. Lewis is a likable bloke, and Kevin Whately, who favors the late Richard Crenna in looks, is entirely believable as Lewis, who has now acquired the Christian name of "Robbie." His partner is James Hathaway (Laurence Fox, son of James ("Lord Darlington" in "The Remains of the Day"), who, unlike Robbie, has gone to Oxford, and who has studied theology, and thus continues as the pedantic (but not obnoxious) foil of the proletarian Robbie ("Not Shakespeare again! I'm gettin' sick of bloody Shakespeare...)

The setting is Oxford University, a beautiful place on earth, and the characters -- the perps -- lot of crime in Oxford -- are dons (profs) and students. It's a fun series.